I Puritani

The art of bel canto will take center stage in Bellini’s lyrical jewel. The electrifying Diana Damrau is Elvira, gripped by madness and love; Javier Camarena, a sensation in his recent appearances in other bel canto works, takes on the role of her beloved and heroic Arturo; and Alexey Markov and Luca Pisaroni are the soldiers caught up in the English Civil War. Maurizio Benini conducts.

World premiere: Théâtre Italien, Paris, 1835. I Puritani was the final work from Vincenzo Bellini, the great Sicilian exponent of the bel canto style of opera. Itwas written specifically for the talents of four of the best singers of its day, and the opera’s success depends almost entirely on the vocal abilities (and artistic sensibilities) of the performers. In our time, Maria Callas was catapulted to international stardom by a series of performances in I Puritani in 1949 at Venice’s La Fenice.

Creators

Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835) possessed an extraordinary gift for melody and a thorough understanding of the human voice. His premature death—just as he was achieving international success and expanding in new musical directions—is one of the most unfortunate in the history of music. The librettist, Count Carlo Pepoli (1796–1881), was an Italian political exile living among the seething expatriate circles of Paris.

ProductionSandro Sequi

Set DesignerMing Cho Lee

Costume DesignerPeter J. Hall

Lighting DesignerGil Wechsler

Revival Stage DirectorSarah Ina Meyers

Composer

Vincenzo Bellini

Setting

The opera is set in the English Civil War of Puritans (“Roundheads”) versus Royalists (“Cavaliers”). While taking many liberties with history, it is set against a background that was a universal idea and very familiar to Italians in Bellini’s time. The bel canto composers explored with powerful results the relationship of civil strife and individual madness: Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor works with a similar, if slightly less explicit, format.